Canada's coach Brent Sutter reacts on the final whistle of the World Junior Hockey Championships semifinal between Canada and Finland at Malmo Arena in Malmo, Sweden on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2014.

MALMO, Sweden – Brent Sutter answered questions with a wry smile, sounding flummoxed by his team’s play in their 5-1 loss to Finland in the world junior championship semifinal.

The defeat meant Canada will not win gold at the tournament for the fifth-straight year.

When queried about that subject, Sutter wasn’t as surprised. And he doesn’t think anyone else should be either.

“I get kind of sensitive to all that. And I have been for the last four years,” the Canadian head coach said. “You guys and a lot of people in our country expect us to win every year just because we’re Canadians. And rightly so; it’s our culture and we want to portray that it’s our game.

The reality is that with junior hockey now across the world is there’s a lot of good teams and a lot of good players in each country. It’s shown in this tournament.”

Sutter was handpicked by Hockey Canada to lead the under-20 program, which hadn’t won a gold medal since 2009 and came home empty handed last year for the first time in 15 tournaments.

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